The Two of You
by mdancerfan78
Summary: Provenza's comments inspire Andy to broach an awkward subject on his next "non-date" with Sharon.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I've been working on writing a lot of angst in my other story on the go & felt I needed a break to write something light. It shouldn't be too long, maybe 3-4 chapters, and will most likely be unapologetically fluffy :-) Please R&R & I will say mahalo in advance for your support! Hope you enjoy!**

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Andy tossed and turned on his mattress and he wondered what the heck was wrong with it. Something about these sheets, maybe. They're scratchy or.. maybe there's something else under here. He sat up and scrounged around his bedding to see if the sheet was lumped up underneath him or maybe there were some clothes on the bed that he hadn't noticed before climbing in for the night. Nothing. The sheets were smooth, nothing rumpled underneath, and they were perfectly comfortable the previous night. He looked at the clock – 2am. Traitorous clock. Traitorous mattress. Everything was conspiring to keep him from getting a good night's sleep. Maybe not everything, he conceded. Maybe just that old coot he called a partner and a friend, his words echoing around in Andy's head every time he hit the pillow and there was no other sound in the dark room to distract.

_"__I think it has something to do with you."_

_"__The two of you have gone out to dinner a LOT."_

Man that little shit could push his buttons. Why would he say something like that? We're just friends. Well actually… are we? He found himself pondering when that happened and how exactly he missed it. Looking throughout their long acquaintance, he doesn't think he would ever say that he hated her, but the word friend would've been a blasphemous stretch on the best of days. There were plenty of times he would've loved to see someone knock that arrogant smirk off her face. Well, he'd wish anyone who wanted to try good luck anyway, recalling a few times he'd seen her take out bozos nearly twice her size in the hand-to-hand training sessions. She was petite, but wily and quick. Merciless too.

She was aggravating as all get-out most of the time and yeah, it was fun to take out frustrations with the guys when she really piled it on thick. Little drawings and nicknames helped relieve some of the tension when she was so infuriating. He could feel his muscles tensing over those thoughts, his lips in a thin line. Occasions for her to show how deeply she cared for her fellow officers were rare, but when they did present, it was clear she was one of the good guys. No, he didn't hate her, but there had definitely been hostile feelings between them 98% of the time, at least on his end. She always seemed so aloof and collected, but he knew very well he aggravated the crap out of her too. He was pretty shitty to her whenever he got the chance, which was fairly often and the few times he'd seen her lose her cool, it was a direct result of something he'd done or said. It occurred to him he hadn't thought of her like that in a long time, maybe not since the first few weeks after she became his boss.

His boss. Shit. That's what all this is really about isn't it. Somehow this is worse and he hadn't even noticed that it had become worse. Why the hell did Provenza have to open his mouth? The whole time he's known her, her presence never went unnoticed by him. Before this… whatever this transition is… he only thought of her as ruthless, a damn good cop, smart, arrogant, condescending, fun to watch when he wasn't in her direct line of fire, obnoxious, smoking hot, and a _total_ pain in the ass. Even if it wasn't in a good way, he always got a little thrill from her presence and sees now that maybe he liked it a bit more than he should have. Damn. He shook his head & chuckled. If he ever admitted that to Provenza, he'd never hear the end of it. His smile faded a bit as he got back to his point.

Because _now_… she's still a damn good cop, wicked smart, a mild pain in the ass on occasion, fun to watch in every situation, inspiring to work with, even hotter somehow, kind, graceful, beautiful... He had to physically resist the urge to keep adding adjectives, because he was quickly headed down that road & could easily compile a significant list. His shoulders slumped and he let out a heavy breath knowing he shouldn't be thinking these things about his immediate superior officer. He briefly entertained the idea of putting an end to their alone time outside of work as a solution and it hit him in the stomach like the sucker punch he never saw coming. Crap. He had feelings for her, and not the kind that were easy to talk about. He felt her absence in this moment of realization like an ocean without waves, without sound. He wanted to hold her, kiss her face, and tell her what an ass he was for never noticing what an amazing woman she is.

So was Provenza right? Did the divorce have something to do with him? He flopped back over on his right side and looked at the clock again – 3am. "Dammit, Lou," he grumbled aloud. It wasn't going to do any good lying here any longer pretending that he might actually get some sleep tonight. He got up and started fidgeting around the house, cleaning forgotten dinner dishes and picking up clothes off his bedroom floor for the washing machine. He kept a close watch on the clock which seemed to tick by at an infinitesimally slow rate and tried to think if there could be any reasonable explanation for him showing up to her place at 5:30 in the morning to take her to breakfast before work. Nothing plausible came to mind so he decided he'd take her to dinner instead, hopefully, if they didn't get stuck at the office all night. Only now he didn't know how to act around her. He didn't know if she had feelings for him or if the divorce was about something else, but the sudden urge to know everything right this very second was overwhelming all his senses. He had no earthly idea how he was going to bring any of this up, but he knew if he didn't he'd be facing a lot more sleepless nights than any man should handle at his age.


	2. Chapter 2

Sharon was quickly becoming exasperated with Andy's behavior at work today. He practically jumped every time she came in contact with him and it was almost like he was trying to make some overly obvious show of professional distance every chance he got. Then when he noticed that she had noticed and was becoming easily irritated with him, he flipped the switch, following her around trying to be overly helpful in every situation. Any time she turned unexpectedly, he was there and it began to resemble the actions of two awkward teenagers with a crush bumping into each other accidentally on purpose around the hallway lockers.

"Good lord," Provenza grumbled at one point, dropping his face into his hands. Andy shot him a warning look from across the room. Rather than snapping at Andy, Sharon decided to run an errand on their current case herself and take Julio with her. She wasn't sure what had shifted between them in one day from being a little more comfortable than colleagues or even friends should be to this jittery stumble around an elephant in the room, but she didn't like it and frankly he was pissing her off. As she announced she was going out and began walking hurriedly to the door, she spotted Andy on her tail and before he could say anything she piped up, "Detective Sanchez, you're with me, please!" Andy's face fell a little and he danced nervously in his spot for a moment before he caught her incredulous glare that seemed to say, _'you'd better get your act together before I get back'_.

Andy's tense and panicky behavior began to grow. Maybe she really has no idea what he's thinking or feeling. Hell, he had no idea before yesterday. Now that he knew, he wasn't sure why all of a sudden it felt like some sort of race for all or nothing. Everything had been flowing so smoothly and naturally between them and now he felt as though if he didn't find out what she was thinking and make his feelings known immediately, there would be an expiration date on the chance. He understood how ridiculous that sounded in his own head, but the need to know seemed to be consuming his thoughts in an urgent manner.

"Flynn!" His partner whispered impatiently and pulled him aside discreetly while Tao and Amy continued to work at their desks. "Whatever you think you're doing or covering up up, you need to knock it off right now!"

"I'm not doing anything!" he snapped back.

"You are aggravating the Captain beyond belief in case you hadn't noticed! _And_ putting the rest of the team on edge. If there was a chance I didn't think anything was going on between you two yesterday, I sure as hell do now! The only difference is you don't seem to be able to handle it anymore. Did something else happen between you and Raydor?!"

"No." He said showing his teeth. "I already told you, we're friends!" He paused, then flailed his hands in between them. "And _you_ are what happened! You and your idiotic comments yesterday! Now I can't stop thinking about it and I have no idea if it's true, if I should talk to her about it, how I should act around her.. everything's different somehow."

Andy looked positively miserable. He continued to ramble about last night and his history with Sharon, how two people who had barely ever been decent to each other for so many years could possibly expect a friendly shift in their relationship to last. It was tentative and where you could even go from there with such a risky dynamic? Thinking about their new found easiness made him practically giddy, but it didn't quite seem real to him. There was this underlying fear that if he tried to shift the delicate balance, it would certainly shift backwards rather than forwards, deteriorating quickly to its former glory. A dawning expression of disbelief, understanding, and incredulity spread throughout Provenza's features as he finally put his hand up to stop Andy talking and then over his face. "Oh my God."

"What?"

"I was wrong." He laughed, but not in a humorous way. "You don't just have a thing with this woman… you have fallen in love with her for Pete's sake!"

"I am not in love with," he realized he was shouting and stopped himself immediately, looking around in hesitation before beginning again in an intense whisper. "I am not in love with Sharon Raydor!"

"hew hew heww, I think you are my friend. And the longer you keep denying it, the more obvious it's going to become." He poked at Andy's chest. "And you're right, there is an urgent sense of time here. Because if you don't talk to the Captain about this soon and figure out what the two of you are doing and calm the hell down about it, the rest of us are going to kill you. And Raydor will be first in line! Even worse, Taylor will weasel intel out of someone and then the shit will really hit the fan... for all of us. Let's just hope you're better at handling the truth than you are at handling the lie you've tried to sell yourself."

Andy couldn't deceive his friend any longer, or himself. He sighed, not wanting to voice the thing that had been making him so jumpy and agitated all night and all day, but now it was exposed and demanded to be heard. "What if she doesn't feel that way, you know... the way I do? What if this is all in my head and the divorce really doesn't have anything to do with me at all?" The look in his eye was an odd combination of fear and hope, as if logic defied any positive answer to this question but he was sure his partner would provide one anyway.

His friend blinked his eyes slowly in an uncharacteristically compassionate gesture, nodding his head in a single sideways acknowledgement of the unfortunate possibility. "Then you do whatever it is you have to do _outside_ of these hallways to get over it. But in _here_, you pick up the pieces and carry on with your job like a grown up. You continue to be a good friend to her and don't be an _ass_ about it." Provenza gave him a pointed look. "If you can't handle those options, then drop it, pull yourself together, and move on right now. I'll be here for you regardless, but you need to decide ahead of time what you're willing to risk and if you can deal professionally with the outcome either way."

Andy dropped his head & nodded in silence. Just because he fell hard when he wasn't looking where he was going didn't guarantee him an equal response and he had to concede that to himself.

Louie placed a supportive hand on Andy's shoulder and caught his eye. "After all that piece of work she married has put her through, she deserves some happiness. If she's leaving him for the chance of finding that with you, be sure you can deliver or let it be." He ended forcefully, but began again kindly. "You deserve happiness too, Flynn. Just think of a way to get it without disrupting our team.. and that means cut out whatever the hell that display was in there today before Taylor notices!"


End file.
